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拍品專文
Boote am Strand (Boats on the Beach) was painted by Beckmann in Amsterdam in 1937 shortly after his emigration from Nazi Germany to Holland. Beckmann and his wife Quappi had fled Germany in July of 1937 after hearing Hitler's speech at the opening of the Hauses der deutschen Kunst in which Hitler had denounced 'degenerate' artists like Beckmann as in need of sterilization or imprisonment.
The subject of the sea had always been one close to Beckmann's heart. "My old girlfriend" is how he often referred to the ocean in his diaries, and throughout his life Beckmann was repeatedly drawn back to the sea as both a source of mental solace and of painterly inspiration. Painted in Amsterdam, Boote am Strand is one of the many seascapes that Beckmann painted in his studio from memory. As Stephan Lackner has recalled, Beckmann had a remarkable ability to take a mental snapshot of a subject and subsequently recreate it, sometimes years later, on canvas. It was often Beckmann's practice to create his landscapes from memory and, in doing so, to infuse them with a specific sense of place and meaning.
In this case it seems likely that Boote am Strand refers to the beach on the island of Wangerooge in the North Sea where Beckmann had spent the early summer of 1937 before emigrating to Amsterdam. Beckmann painted several seascapes during the late 1930s and early '40s many of which are often infused with a sense of longing for the horizon. With its subject matter of a number of sailboats collecting on the beach and preparing to set sail, Boote am Strand is both a seascape and a scene of departure. Beckmann often used metaphor in his work as a way of referring to events in his own life and to stages of his personal development. He saw both his life and his work as a spiritual journey of discovery and in painterly terms this often led to the artist depicting himself as a sailor or a lone voyager upon the ocean. Most famously, it was in his large triptych Departure of 1933-5, a work painted at the same time as the Nazis rise to power and their dismissal of Beckmann from his job, that Beckmann displayed the way in which his art translated events of the exterior world into spiritual metaphor. With his recent emigration to Holland, Beckmann's life had now really begun the kind of odyssey often depicted in these earlier paintings, and in this sense, this remembered seascape depicting boats setting sail may also be a work of poignant personal resonance for the artist.
The subject of the sea had always been one close to Beckmann's heart. "My old girlfriend" is how he often referred to the ocean in his diaries, and throughout his life Beckmann was repeatedly drawn back to the sea as both a source of mental solace and of painterly inspiration. Painted in Amsterdam, Boote am Strand is one of the many seascapes that Beckmann painted in his studio from memory. As Stephan Lackner has recalled, Beckmann had a remarkable ability to take a mental snapshot of a subject and subsequently recreate it, sometimes years later, on canvas. It was often Beckmann's practice to create his landscapes from memory and, in doing so, to infuse them with a specific sense of place and meaning.
In this case it seems likely that Boote am Strand refers to the beach on the island of Wangerooge in the North Sea where Beckmann had spent the early summer of 1937 before emigrating to Amsterdam. Beckmann painted several seascapes during the late 1930s and early '40s many of which are often infused with a sense of longing for the horizon. With its subject matter of a number of sailboats collecting on the beach and preparing to set sail, Boote am Strand is both a seascape and a scene of departure. Beckmann often used metaphor in his work as a way of referring to events in his own life and to stages of his personal development. He saw both his life and his work as a spiritual journey of discovery and in painterly terms this often led to the artist depicting himself as a sailor or a lone voyager upon the ocean. Most famously, it was in his large triptych Departure of 1933-5, a work painted at the same time as the Nazis rise to power and their dismissal of Beckmann from his job, that Beckmann displayed the way in which his art translated events of the exterior world into spiritual metaphor. With his recent emigration to Holland, Beckmann's life had now really begun the kind of odyssey often depicted in these earlier paintings, and in this sense, this remembered seascape depicting boats setting sail may also be a work of poignant personal resonance for the artist.